A nice, small, bite-sized morsel. Pretty much like every fish I’ve ever caught, until now…
Who doesn’t like a good fishing story…
– Joseph Billett
This July long weekend, along with my father-in-law and two brother-in-laws, I got to go on my first Salmon fishing trip! I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years. The quintessential guys trip!
Amy and I love the coast, and I always have liked the idea of waking up early in the morning fog, smelling the salty air, grabbing a coffee and setting out to catch a whopper of a fish! For those that have gone salmon fishing before, or go 2-3 times a year, this story may not impress you all that much. However! If the biggest fish you have ever caught is the same size as the bait we used (anchovies and mackerel), this story is for you!
When you’re on a fishing trip like this, you purchase a licence and have a daily limit of what you can catch. Recently, the limits for what can be caught (and kept) have changed dramatically. In our case, we were allotted two Chinook salmon (1 per day), two halibut – a smaller one and a bigger one (1 per day), two ling cod (2 per day), and six black bass (3 per day). We could also catch 3 coho salmon, but they were just starting to arrive in the area. We arrived at noon on Saturday and were leaving by noon on Tuesday. Three days to catch our limit, and let’s not forget the obvious, catch a bigger fish than the other guy!!
Therein lies the real challenge with fishing. Our guides would give us a sense of the weights and lengths of fish that should satisfy most non-greedy fishermen. When I caught my first spring/Chinook salmon, ten times the size of most of the Alberta fish I’ve ever caught (it was 15 pounds), and the guide says,
“We’ll put him back. We want high teens.”
… Put the biggest fish I’ve ever caught – back…? How do we know we’re going to catch another!!?
On arrival, we were told a north-westerly storm front was coming in on the Monday. When a high-pressure front comes in, the waters get choppy and the fish typically stop biting. Fortunately for Mr. Fishing Guide, I did catch another 24-pound beauty that first morning.
What a great adventure fishing is. But, don’t kid yourself… it’s a sport like anything else and pride and ego does get in the way. We had some guys in our group that went into their last two days needing to catch their two Chinook and you can imagine they were less choosy as time went on. Patience can pay off though! My father-in-law hooked a 28 pound Chinook on the last morning!
This is where I’d like to draw a fishing metaphor to grain trading… There’s only a few hundred of them, but I managed to settle on this one:
When you’re fishing for grain prices, and the coffee shop bragging price is a 30lb Chinook or Tyee, and the weather and market conditions are so choppy and volatile, no buyers are biting… This is where you need a trusted guide!
Your Agfinity trader is here to help you bait your hooks and catch your limit. To tell you when to throw that 15 pounder back in the water, even when it’s hard! But we do this so you can reel in the whopper! The monster catch that can feed your family and cows all through winter!
This is grain trading in the prairies! We’ve been fishing in these waters for years and know them better than anyone else!
We look forward to guiding you again this next crop year! Let us help you catch the price that won’t get away!!
